CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday announced that the State Government will pay the educational fee, hostel fees etc., for all government school students who have got medical admission under the 7.5% reservation without waiting for the scholarship payment.
He said the fees will be paid by creating a revolving fund with the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Limited.
The Chief Minister, in a statement here, recalled that on November 18, while presenting the orders for admission under 7.5% reservation, he had announced that to cushion the students from the poor economic background and those studied in government schools including those run by municipal corporations, Adi Dravida and Tribal Welfare Department, Kallar Reclamation Schools, etc., post-matric scholarship and educational assistance schemes.
"I have made the above announcement with a view to avoiding the hardships to be faced by the students who have got admission in private medical colleges in paying the fees. But after knowing that these students will get full assistance from the State government, DMK promising to bear the educational expenditure is nothing but a political drama and people know this well," the Chief Minister added.
Stalin Announcement
Earlier in the day, DMK president MK Stalin announced that his party would bear the educational expenditure of government school students who have cleared NEET and got medical course admission in private colleges this year under the 7.5% reservation.
The DMK chief, in a statement, said: "As per the 7.5% reservation, 227 government school students who cleared NEET have got admission in government schools and the rest of the students have got admission in private medical colleges.
Since the students from poor economic backgrounds are unable to pay the fees in private colleges, the DMK will bear their entire educational expenditure."
Expressing confidence that the DMK would come to power after the 2021 Assembly elections, Stalin said, "At that time, the DMK would take legal steps to scrap the NEET so that the medical education dreams of the students studying in government and government-aided schools and those hailing from the poor economic background, backward classes and oppressed communities can be realised.